'Tough actions taken'

The new police recruits during the pass out parade at Nasova Police grounds recently. Picture: RAMA.

COMPLAINTS against police officers dropped by 31 per cent last year.

Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said this was the result of the tough actions they had been taking.

He said this was also a result of the strengthening of the Police Internal Affairs Department.

The force was granted a $150,000 allocation in the 2017/2018 budget to strengthen their capacity to conduct more internal investigations.

"Why that has reduced is because of the tough actions we have taken," Brig-Gen Qiliho said.

"We have dismissed people from the force, terminated their services with us. There have been harsher punishments that we have been giving. And also with the strengthening of that department, people have been coming forward with the complaints that they have and the officers know the consequences of things that they do.

"We have referred cases to FICAC, we've taken cases to the courts straight away, and we've had cases dealt with straight away in our own tribunal."